


Nerd Love

by Jedi_Olympian



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Bookstores, F/M, Mutual Pining, Nerdiness, One Shot, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:29:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26414938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jedi_Olympian/pseuds/Jedi_Olympian
Summary: Reid visits the same bookstore almost every morning for more than just buying books.
Relationships: Spencer Reid/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 47





	Nerd Love

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short little one-shot about two nerds crushing on each other. I've imagined it taking place in season 7 or so. Originally posted on FFN. Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Check out my Instagram to keep up to date with what I'm working on!

The early morning sun shone through the windows of the café bookstore. It was the same as every other morning. The owner, Leah, sat on a stool behind the checkout counter with her coffee as she read from a book. The large, ornate hanging clock by the door read 7:10. The barista in the café part of the small store watched her with mild amusement as Leah tapped her thumb impatiently against the coffee mug. Leah reread the same page of the book twice.

There weren't many things that made Leah impatient so early in the morning. Waiting for her coffee was one. Waiting for the next book shipment to arrive was another. But she already had her coffee and they weren't due for another shipment of books for a week.

No, that morning made Leah impatient because she was waiting for one of her regular customers. Not many people went to bookstores in the morning, so most customers were in the store for coffee and breakfast from the café section, but he was different. He didn't come for a latté or a muffin. Whenever he walked into the store, he made a beeline for the books, picked one out, bought it, then left.

And damn, did he look cute doing it.

Tall, lanky, with short, brown messy hair, and constantly dressed like a young professor, Leah had the biggest crush on the man. Each barista who worked the morning shift knew it, too.

She couldn't quite tell exactly why she liked him. Frankly, he kind of reminded her of a socially anxious scarecrow, and he'd never actually spoken more than a few words to her. She'd never really spoken to him either besides greeting him, telling him the total cost of whatever book he was buying, and wishing him a nice day. Leah did appreciate what books he picked out though. Most of which were nonfiction, but occasionally, there was a book about some form of pseudoscience or a dystopian future or something else. The man seemed to enjoy reading anything even remotely related to science or history.

His reading habits in general were probably what drew her in the most. The man didn't stop in one morning a week to buy a book, no. He was in almost every morning to buy a book. Sometimes there would be a few days in a row where he didn't come in at all, but other than those days, he was in the bookstore every morning without fail with his floppy hair, disheveled clothing, and messenger bag.

Leah had never seen him driving, so she assumed he lived nearby. He also went out of his way to avoid physical contact with strangers and touching surfaces, so Leah thought he might have a thing about germs which she didn't mind considering how often she got up to wipe down the counter and surfaces.

The only thing she knew concretely about him was his name: Spencer Reid. She only knew it because of his credit card that he had never directly handed or taken from her, always setting it on the counter or grabbing it from the counter.

There were many times Leah had been tempted to search him up on the internet, but she couldn't make herself do it. She didn't want to pry if he didn't want to offer up information. Alas, she would have to be okay with staring at him from afar.

At exactly 7:15 AM, the bell above the door dinged as Spencer walked into the store.

Leah looked up from the book in front of her and said, "Good morning," with a smile.

Spencer gave her his standard, awkward grin and a quiet, "Hello," before scurrying off between the stacks of books as he always did.

Leah sighed and rested her chin on her palm as she watched him walk away and disappear from sight. If he followed the pattern, which he had done without fail since the store first opened seven months prior, Spencer would browse for exactly six minutes then make his way back to the front, purchase the book, and leave.

She briefly wondered if she was ever going to work up the nerve to strike up a real conversation with him like she had been trying to do since he first walked into her store.

* * *

It wasn't until a month later when Leah gave herself a stern pep talk, telling herself to stop acting like a high school girl crushing on her lab partner and just talk to the man, that she finally decided to talk to him. Actually talk to him.

But when the time came, he hadn't arrived, leaving Leah frustrated a sad. It meant she wouldn't see the cute customer for at least three days. That seemed to be the average time of him being gone.

Four days later, Spencer finally walked into the store again, and Leah was ecstatic. It took all her willpower not to jump off the stool beaming from ear to ear. Instead, she simply said, "Good morning."

He replied, "Hello," and went directly to the books, as per usual.

The current barista made eye contact with Leah and aggressively pointed at Spencer's retreating, silently prodding Leah to finally talk to him. Leah waved her off and returned back to her book.

When Spencer walked up to the counter, Leah asked, "You find everything you needed?"

He awkwardly smiled and set the book in front of her. "Yes, thank you," he answered. Spencer then began to pull out his wallet as she rung up the book.

"We, uh, should be getting in Wired for Culture by Mark Pagel that comes out in a few days, if that piques your interest. Heard it's supposed to be a good read about the origins of human society."

Spencer picked his head up to fully look at the clerk. Here he was buying yet another book while quietly pining after the cute bookstore clerk, and she was talking to him. She was actually talking to him, making a conversation about something she thought he might like. He couldn't believe it. He had been wanting to talk to her for months, but he hadn't been able to muster anything more than a 'hello' and 'goodbye' every time he saw her.

Staring at her for hours would be the easiest thing to do. She had the prettiest smile that made him want to smile right back. Tattoos weren't usually his thing, but they were all artistic nerdy tattoos from some of the same things he enjoyed. Not to mention, he always saw her reading, too.

He then realized he hadn't said anything in response yet. "Yeah, I heard about that. I've been looking forward to its release. You said a few days?"

Leah set his card on the counter next to the book he had picked out. "Yes, yeah, um, two, I think. I can double-check." She turned to the computer next to the cash register and pulled up the tab with the next shipment of books. "Yep, it's two days from now."

"Great, I'll, uh, I'll be here." Spencer smiled at her, picking up his credit card and book. "Have a good day."

"You, too." She waved as he left the store. It was the first time he initiated the 'have a good day,' so she assumed that was a good start. And she had correctly guessed his interest in an upcoming evolutionary biology book, so she was proud of that. And she had gotten him to smile for real, not one of his bashful, awkward ones that were admittedly endearing and adorable.

The barista made eye contact with Leah again and shot her an exaggerated wink and thumbs up.

* * *

The next day while Spencer was at the checkout with another book, Leah worked up the courage to ask something she had been dying to know. "Do you read a book a day?" she wondered, trying to sound nonchalant and only mildly interested to not be completely strange.

 _Actually, I enjoy reading multiple books a day_ , he thought to himself. "Yeah," he answered. He didn't want to sound like a complete freak to the cute woman in front of him, not like it would have turned her off from him.

"That's awesome," Leah said wistfully as she swiped his card. "I wish I still had the time to do that. High school was great. I could never put my books down." After finishing the transaction, she almost held out her hand for him to shake but quickly remembered she had never seen him willingly touch someone, so she decided against it. "I'm Leah."

He finally got her name. Embarrassingly enough, he then gestured to the tattoo on her left arm. "Sort of like Leia from Star Wars?" He then silently berated himself. They weren't even pronounced the same.

Her eyes drifted to the binary sunset tattoo inside a diamond on her forearm as she blushed. "No, but I sometimes like to pretend it's from Star Wars. It makes it easier than explaining my dad named me after Lee Adama from-"

"Battlestar Galactica!" Spencer blurted with an excited grin as he adjusted his messenger bag. "I love that show. Both the 1978 version and the 2004 version. Did you know that the United Nations hosted a Battlestar Galactica retrospective on human rights, terrorism, children and armed conflict, and reconciliation between civilians and faiths with some of the actors?"

Leah hadn't heard him talk so much before, but she loved it. "I had no idea. Don't know if that's weird or kinda cool."

"Probably both."

She chuckled then tried not to frown when his phone rang. Spencer fumbled as he pulled it out of his pocket to look at it. _We've got a case_. His smile fell away.

"Sorry, I've gotta go," he told her, sliding the phone back into his pocket. He quickly grabbed his card and book and hurried out the door, calling out, "Have a good day!"

Leah didn't know why he was in a hurry to leave or what his phone said, but she hoped everything was okay. She slumped onto the stool with a sigh. At least she knew he liked Battlestar Galactica.

* * *

As Spencer drove to work, he wanted to curse anything and everything. I never introduced myself. Once at Quantico, he gritted his teeth as he sat in a chair at the round table.

Derek Morgan, probably Spencer's closest friend in the Behavioral Analysis Unit, looked up at his friend and coworker, raising an eyebrow at the younger man. Profilers were never supposed to profile other profilers, but he couldn't help it when he noticed Spencer's agitated state.

"Reid, what's up?" Morgan asked.

"Uh, nothing," Reid muttered, taking off his messenger bag and hanging it from the back of the chair.

Morgan shook his head, not bothering to go along it. "Nuh-uh, we both know it ain't nothing."

Reid sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He knew he should give Morgan a straight answer. Morgan would be able to give him decent advice. "I was talking to someone and forgot to introduce myself," Reid explained. "How lame is that?"

A shit-eating grin spread across Morgan's face. "Is this about that cute bookstore clerk? Did Pretty Boy work up the courage to finally talk to her?"

Emily Prentiss and David Rossi then walked into the room, catching the tail-bit of Morgan's question. "Talk to who?" Prentiss asked as she pulled out a chair and sat down.

"No one," Reid quickly shut down.

Rossi smiled at the boy-genius. "Oh, the woes of young love."

"I'm not in love," Reid corrected.

Morgan leaned forward in his seat while laughing at Reid's exasperated expression. "No, you've just been crushing on a woman for the past few months." He looked at Rossi and Prentiss. "He finally talked to her."

"Sounds like it's getting pretty serious," Prentiss teased.

Reid shook his head. "I hate all of you."


End file.
